Thomas Edwin Shaill

This name is on the St Mark's War Memorial, Kennington Oval, London SE11

T. E Shaill

(Thomas Edwin Shaill)

Service no J/32523

Boy 1st class, Royal Navy, H.M.S. "Hampshire"

Died age 18 on 5 June 1916

Remembered at Portsmouth Naval Memorial and at St Mark's Church

H.M.S. "Hampshire", carrying Lord (Horatio) Kitchener, who had been sent by Prime Minister Asquith to Russia in an attempt to rally the country in its fight against Germany, struck a mine at around 7.40pm on 5 June 1916 off Mainland, Orkney. The ship sank very rapidly and Kitchener, his staff and most of the crew perished; only 12 men survived. Lord Kitchener, a national hero, was appointed Secretary of War in 1914 and was given the task of recruiting a large army to fight Germany. With the help of a war poster that featured Kitchener and the words: 'Join Your Country's Army' and 'Your Country Needs You', over 3,000,000 men volunteered in the first two years of the war.

Information from the 1901 census

Amos and Thomas Shaill were sons of coal porter Stephen Shaill, 34 in 1901, and his wife Emma, also 34. The family lived at 1, Prospect Cottages, Richmond. Stephen was a Richmond native but Emma was from Suffolk. Five children were registered on the 1901 census:

William Shaill, 11

Stephen Shaill, 9

Ellen Shaill, 7

Amos Shaill, 4

Thomas Shaill, 2

William Nicholls, 28, a single stable groom from Twickenham, lodged with the family, as did Florence Diggins, 1, who was born in Richmond Union (workhouse).

I have not been able to trace the family on the 1911 census.